New festival will let attendees vote on event's design

The festival is already offering guests the chance to take hot air balloon rides over Somerset

A new independent music and arts festival is inviting attendees to vote on what takes place at the event.

Debuting next May, Show of Hands festival leaders will let everyone who buys a ticket take part in an online voting system where they can vote on everything from non-music programming to its design.

The festival is scheduled to take place in Bruton, Somerset, on the May Bank Holiday weekend, with a capacity of 2,500 people.

"There's been a huge increase in the way that people engage with immersive content and immersive theatre and I wanted to create something that was entirely driven by people's ideas and what they want to see at a festival," said festival director Alex Lane.

"I put my thinking cap on and thought about what that would look like if it was boiled down entirely to its base roots and decided on a vote where the audience entirely decides the fundamental parts of what the show actually looks like," he added.

Attendees, artists and crew will be given access to an online platform where they can propose ideas and vote on others.

The plan is that every year of attendance increases your vote count by one - so a first time attendee will have one vote and someone going for a third time carries the weight of three votes.

"People could propose artists but they shouldn't be limited by that - you might want to put forward an idea for a blimp stage or you want it to be a vegetarian festival - there's nothing that's off limits," said Alex.

Alex grew up hot air ballooning around Somerset and this forms a part of the festival - with attendees already able to book rides around the Mendips, Somerset Levels and Glastonbury Tor at dusk and dawn.

"It's such a strange mystical place, I couldn't think of anywhere better to hold the festival," he said.

The festival's musical line up is expected to be announced in October but will feature a range of jazz, experimental and neo-soul artists as well as electronic DJs.